The Virginia State Bar (VSB) is the administrative agency of the

Supreme Court of Virginia The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...

created to regulate, improve and advance the

legal profession Legal profession is a profession in which legal professionals study, develop and apply law. Usually, there is a requirement for someone choosing a career in law to first obtain a law degree or some other form of legal education. It is difficult t ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Membership in good standing in the VSB is mandatory for attorneys wishing to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VSB is thus an integrated bar.

Organization

The VSB is governed by its Council and Executive Committee, whose members are elected or appointed from the judicial circuits in the Commonwealth.
The Virginia Lawyer
magazine,'' which includes the ''Virginia Lawyer Register'', is the official publication of the VSB, distributed to lawyers, judges, general subscribers, law libraries, other state bar associations and the media. VSB publishes numerous pamphlets, handbooks and other publications to aid members and the public. For 45 years, the VSB has also run th
Virginia Lawyer Referral Service
that provides callers to the service with the name of an attorney who practices in the caller's requested area of the law, and in the caller's geographic area. The VSB is to be distinguished from the

Virginia Bar Association The Virginia Bar Association (VBA) is a voluntary organization of lawyers, judges and law school faculty and students in Virginia, with offices in Richmond, Virginia. Key elements are advocacy, professionalism, service and collegiality. It provi ...

, a voluntary organization.

History

The predecessor to the VSB was the Virginia State Bar Association (VSBA), a voluntary statewide organization founded in 1888 to promote the ethical practice of law in Virginia. The VSBA worked with the legislature to establish a mandatory state affiliated agency. In 1938 the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

passed a law (and the governor signed) establishing the VSB, and delegating to it the power to issue regulatory opinions that are incorporated into the

Code of Virginia The Code of Virginia is the statutory law of the U.S. state of Virginia, and consists of the codified legislation of the Virginia General Assembly. The 1950 Code of Virginia is the revision currently in force. The previous official versions were ...

. The Virginia State Bar Association continued as a voluntary association, renaming itself the

. The Virginia State Bar reviews complaints against lawyers. There are 17 disciplinary district committees, operating in subcommittees, that review bar complaints in their jurisdiction and determine whether there is sufficient evidence of a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct, and if so, what the appropriate disposition on the complaint is. The committees speak through their orders, posted online. In 1963, the VSB was involved in litigation before the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. In

NAACP v. Button ''NAACP v. Button'', 371 U.S. 415 (1963), is a 6-to-3 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States which held that the reservation of jurisdiction by a federal district court did not bar the U.S. Supreme Court from reviewing a state court's ru ...

, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Virginia Bar's attempt to use lawyer ethics laws against the NAACP, which was litigating against Virginia school districts as well as state agencies which had adopted a policy of

Massive Resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...

to the

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...

decisions. The following year the Supreme Court again decided against the Virginia Bar, this time for its prosecution of a union's referral practices in ''Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen v. Virginia ex rel. Virginia State Bar.'' In

Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar ''Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar'', 421 U.S. 773 (1975), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision. It stated that lawyers engage in "trade or commerce" and hence ended the legal profession's exemption from antitrust laws. Facts In 1971, Ruth and Lewis G ...

(1975), the bar's minimum fee schedules were stricken down on antitrust grounds, notwithstanding the bar's status as an agency of the Virginia courts. In 1978, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 'Virginia State Bar v. Surety Title Insurance Agency, Inc.,' 571 F.2d 205 (4th Cir. 1978) was faced with the bar's attempt to regulate non-lawyer employees of title insurance companies.

Ethics Policy Change

In 2000, the Rules of Professional Conduct replaced the "Code of Professional Responsibility" as the rules governing lawyers’ conduct.

References

{{Authority control Virginia law American state bar associations 1938 establishments in Virginia Organizations established in 1938